Full Moons
by Pia O'Leary
Summary: One-shot. James and his friends go to the Shrieking Shack to be with Remus during a full moon, leaving Lily and her friends (girlfriends of the Marauders) back at Hogwarts. But the next morning, the boys don't return like they're supposed to ...


Full Moons and Cheerless Tunes

Lily looked around at her friends; Mae was sprawled on the floor with her hands over her eyes, Toni was sulking in the corner, and Gina was dripping tears on her Potions essay. It suddenly shocked her how differently they were all taking this. The guys were all at the Shrieking Shack; it was a full moon. James, Sirius, and Bryant, the loyal friends they were, had transfigured themselves into a stag, a dog, and a cat, respectively, to be with Remus. Lily felt her stomach jolt as she thought about James; she couldn't stop worrying all day. They had left a few hours ago, leaving the girls a bundle of nerves. Mae was trying to deny that anything was happening, Toni was angry at the world, and Gina had been crying on and off since they left. Lily, on the other hand was just worried ... a little bit scared, but for the most part just worried.

"Oh my god! I can't bloody do this anymore!" Mae sat up and punched the ground repeatedly. Lily walked over and put an arm around her shoulders trying to quiet her. "How can you be so calm Lily?" Lily almost laughed, almost.

"I'm no where near calm. I'm worried as hell, but I know there's nothing I can do about it." Gina got up from the bed and walked over to Lily, sitting down on the other side of her. Lily saw the tears brimming on her eyes and hugged her tightly. This was the first full moon since she and Remus had officially become a couple; she hadn't known the full extent of the problem until a week before. "Come on, he'll be fine."

"I don't understand why we couldn't go with him?"

"Because he's a danger to humans, you know that Gina." Lily was startled to see Toni get up from the floor and glare at her.

"You could have gone!" It was the first thing Toni had said to her since the guys left. She wasn't normally this uptight, but considering the events of the past week, she did have reason. Sirius had told her that he loved her five days ago; she had of course said that she loved him as well. This made the whole 'go off with Remus who's going to turn into a werewolf' thing a lot harder on her. She felt like she had just gotten Sirius (in a manner of speaking) and now she was going to lose him again.

"What? And leave you all here to kill each other? I think not!"

"Lily what's she talking about?" Lily sighed as Toni continued to glare at her.

Toni sat down in front of Lily and said, "She's an animagus!"

"What?!" Gina and Mae shrieked.

"It's true. Her animal form is that of a dove." Lily glared at Toni, but sighed and looked at the floor.

"Lily, why didn't you go? You've been worried about James all day!" Mae gave her a confused expression; Lily couldn't keep her mind off of her boyfriend and the full moon at all during the day.

"Mae, I couldn't just leave you all here. I've lived through this so many times, I'll be fine." Lily was right; she was the first to be told about the little problem every full moon. James told Lily in January of their sixth year, but they didn't tell Mae until the end of school sixth year. Toni and Gina hadn't been told until they started going out with Sirius and Remus, respectively.

"It doesn't matter, you should have gone."

"No, James, as much as I hate to admit it, can take care of things. You three on the other hand, I'm not so sure about." Lily smiled as Toni's expression softened.

"How do you go through this every month, Lily?" Gina wiped the tears off her cheeks and looked between Lily, Mae, and Toni.

"Don't look at me ... I'm still a wreck every single time. Especially with Bryant's form being so small ... I'm always afraid he'll get trampled." Lily laughed; Bryant's form was that of a black cat.

"He won't get trampled, Mae. I don't know how I've managed all this time. Whenever I get really down about it, I think about James." Lily smiled wistfully. "I feel safe with him, you know? And I know he would never allow anything bad to happen." Toni shook her head and lay down on the ground. She rolled over and laid her head in Lily's lap.

"I hate this ..." Mae's voice trailed off and she looked out the window. Gina sniffled and Toni sighed.

"What's going to happen when we're all out of Hogwarts?" Lily's heart stopped for a moment; they only had three more months until graduation.

"Toni, you know what's going to happen. You're going to move in with Sirius, I'm going to move in with James, and Mae with Bryant, and Gina with Remus." She smiled to herself as her heart resumed its regular pattern.

"No, I mean with Remus' problem."

"Every month the four of them will go to the Shack or wherever else they decide for the night. And the four of us will go to my flat and spend the night there." Lily said it like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You mean you won't let us ... you know, spend the night alone?"

"Gina! How could you think that? No one would ever let any of us spend the night alone! I don't think any of us would survive that." The girls all laughed, albeit shaky and half-hearted, it was still laughter.

"And after we're all married, we'll still do that every month." Mae smiled at her friends who nodded.

**The Next Morning**

"Lily! Oh my god! Where are they?!" Toni looked frantically around the Great Hall. It was almost time for class and the guys had still not returned.

"Something's wrong." Lily's eyes darkened and she turned around and started out of the Great Hall. Her three friends followed hurriedly, unsure of what to do. "I've got to go find them. Stay here; go back up to the Common Room and wait for them. I'll meet you in our Dormitory in 2 hours." Mae, Toni, and Gina nodded; looking scared, as Lily ran out towards the Whomping Willow. She had left her bag at their feet and Mae picked it up as they started to walk back to the Common Room.

Lily glanced around to make sure that no one was watching, before transfiguring into a white dove. She had a pretty hard time getting past the Willow's branches, but did manage to get into the secret passage way. She flew for a few minutes before coming to the trap door. She transfigured back into her human form for a moment, to push open the door, and then turned back into a dove.

As she flew into the room, she let out a horrified chirp. Remus was lying on the floor looking terribly; he was covered with self-inflicted wounds and dried blood. Bryant was slumped in the corner, unconscious, with a thin line of blood trickling from a cut on his forehead. Sirius was sprawled in the middle of the room with his leg twisted at an unnatural angle. James, the only conscious one, was sitting on the bed with his head in his hands. Lily chirped again, and James looked around the room, startled.

"Lily? It's okay, Remus won't hurt you ... now." James dropped his head back into his hands as Lily transfigured back into her human form. She looked around the room, confused and shocked.

"James ..." She couldn't make her mouth say anything more. James looked up and, seeing the tears in her eyes, got up and hugged her tightly.

"It's okay, Lily. It was our own fault, not his." Lily pulled away from him angrily.

"James Harold Potter, you tell me what in the bloody hell is going on right now!" Despite the fact that James was several inches taller than Lily, he practically cowered in front of her.

"We made a mistake ... I just need to go get my wand and do a few healing spells, then it will all be fine." James started towards the trap door but Lily stepped in front of him.

"You can't do healing spells to save your life. Don't lie to me! What happened?" James sighed, defeated, and sat back down on the bed.

"We thought it was late enough, so the three of us transfigured back. But before we knew what was happening, Remus attacked us. We're lucky it was almost dawn; could've been a lot worse." Lily stared at him, horrified.

"Are you hurt?"

"No, but I can't say the same for any of them." James jerked his thumb towards his three unconscious friends. "I had to knock Remus out." Lily sat down next to James and wrapped her arms around his middle.

"It's not your fault James."

"Yes it is!" James stood up, pulling away from Lily. "I'm supposed to be the one that makes sure everything's okay. I'm supposed to be the one that makes sure no one gets hurt. I'm supposed to be the one that –" James stopped as he fought back the tears that were coming to his eyes. Lily stood up, walked to him, and pulled him into a tight hug.

"It is in no way your fault that any of this happened, James." Lily felt a few tears drip onto her shoulder. "You sit down and I'll fix them up. Okay?"

"What would I do without you Lily?" Lily smiled and led him to the bed where he sat down. She walked over to where Sirius was laying and knelt down beside him. She muttered a few spells to mend his broken leg and then another to return him to consciousness. He sat up, confused, and looked around the room.

"Lily?"

"Yes, Sirius, it's me. Don't try and sit up just yet, you'll get lightheaded," Lily said in a soothing voice. Sirius rubbed his forehead and lay back down, obediently. Next, Lily went to Bryant; she couldn't find anything wrong except the cut on his head and the fact that he was unconscious. She said a few spells and he started to stir. She smiled at him and said, "All right, there Bryant?"

"I think so." Lily nodded and walked over to Remus; this was going to take considerably longer. She spent a good 45 minutes performing healing spells on the countless cuts and bruises, not to mention the three fractures where he had fallen on his right arm. Finally, Lily muttered a spell to wake him up and he started to stir. James watched her admiringly as she worked. Anyone else would have either had a break down at seeing three of his or her best friends unconscious and injured, or screaming at James for letting something like this happen. But not Lily; she kept her composure and did what needed to be done.

"Remus? Can you sit up?" Remus looked at her, confused, but allowed her to prop him up against the wall. "There." Lily smiled at him. "You'll want to stay here for the day, I'll be back later with some Pepper Up Potion, okay?" Remus nodded groggily and Lily turned to James. "Help him up onto the bed." Her voice, although commanding, was not lacking of compassion. James got up and, with a little help from Lily, got Remus up onto the bed, where he immediately fell back asleep.

"What about them?" James motioned towards Sirius and Bryant. "I don't think it's a good idea for them to go back to the school like that." Lily nodded, but was silent. James didn't talk for a moment, knowing that she was weighing her options.

"I'll stay here with them, you should to but someone has to tell the girls what's going on. Go back to the school and they'll be in the Common Room. Tell them that everything's okay and we'll be back at school after dinner. Then, go to my Dormitory and bring some Pepper Up Potion. Stop in the kitchens and get some food for all of you." James nodded and smiled at Lily. He leaned down and kissed her passionately.

"I love you, Lily Evans."

"I love you, James Potter." Lily smiled and hugged James tightly; it felt brilliant to be back in his arms.

"I don't know what we would have ever done without you." James smiled and kissed the top of Lily's head. "Lily?"

"Yes James?"

"What did I do to deserve you?" Lily giggled into James' chest, making him chuckle.

"I don't know, but I'm glad you did it."

A/N: Ok, this was just a one-shot. How did you like it? It just kind of came to me while I was reading a certain fanfic. Believable? Stupid? What did you think? (BTW, this does jive with First Day of My Life, so if you're confused about whom Bryant and the girls are, read that.)

Disclaimer: You know the drill ... I no own!


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